Exhibiting a few frames of my life

Archive for December, 2010

Today afternoon, I attended a traning session in our office. The session was on Assertiveness and it was one of the impressive trainings that I attended so far. The trainer was good and also the content quality was decent. One of the major reasons to attend this training was to evaluate my assertiveness and I think at the end of the training, I was quite happy what I got. Since I liked the training, I’d like to use my blog to share a few points that I understand/learnt there. So, here I go:

The basic human nature or attitude towards life can be typecasted as Passive, Assertive, and Aggressive, or may be a combination of any of these three types.

A passive person is someone who is very low on self esteem and like to shy away from anything that needs direct participation or responsibility. Such people like to live low key and usually depend on somebody else to make decisions for themselves. In most of the times they are unable to express their opinions or failed to make others understand about their feelings and needs. People with passive attitude are usually very soft spoken and in most cases they prefers a defensive body language or failed to exhibit any direct eye contact.

An assertive person is high on self esteem and understands well about his capabilities. They never shy away from their responsibilities and are alwasys ready with their opinions. They also like to make their own decisions. However, if convincing enough, they will not hesitate to abide by someone else’s decision. They are logical and try to understand the pre and post effects of their actions before acting on something. Assertive people are also very good in listening and understanding others and they can present their opinions, needs, or feelings in a very clear and direct manner. Assertive people have an open body posture, they speak very clearly and confidently, and they like to keep optimum eye contact while participating in a conversation.

Aggressive people are those who like to dominate others be it with their attitudes or their actions. They always like to control others and do not miss any opportunity to criticize or blame others. They want people to follow what they like and get frustrated or angered if somebody opposes their decisions. They never rely on others or think about the repercussions of their actions. Usually an aggressive person talks in a very loud and demanding voice with direct eye-contact, which might sometimes transformed to a continuous stare or gaze to make people they are talking uncomfortable.

Apart from these three basic human nature, another important point that was discussed in today’s training was ‘how important it is to say no to someone yet keeping yourself assertive’. In other words, how to not say “no” when it is needed to say so. Being assertive doesn’t mean that a person never say no to anyone. An assertive person might not agree to someone else’s opinion or dislike a proposal of another person. But the beauty of assertiveness blooms when that person is able to convey that without attempting to hurt or making the other person feel low. In such situations, a direct “no” might offend the other person. Therefore, it is very important for an assertive person to chose his/her words in communicating with others. An assertive person tries to create an environment where not only s/he can win but also the person against him/her can feel the same. More precisely, assertiveness in people can bring in win-win situations for all.

Yesterday night we watched Khichdi – the Movie. Me and my wife are great fan of the TV series based on which the film has been made. However, somehow we didn’t get the chance to watch it in the theatres when it released last month. But a couple of days ago I got the DVD while shopping in a supermarket. So, yesterday after dinner, we sat down to watch the movie. This is not a movie review, but just a write up I felt to write after watching the movie. So, there’ll not be any hint about its story at all.

First of all Khichdi is an out and out laugh ride, with very decent humor. There is no double meaning, no abusing, except the regular victimization of Babuji, the Kurkur Kumar. From its transition from a popular lostsitcom to the large screen, Khichdi hasn’t lost its credibility in delivering the millions of laughs for which we love the series so much. However, casting a new actor as Jayshri instead of the series’ regular and popular Jayshri ben, I think producers took a bit risk, which however was well-tackled by the new actor. Rest of the characters, Hansa, Praful, Babuji, Himangshu, Chakki, Jackie, and a hoard of Parminders performed shamelessly 🙂 good to make you laugh your heart out. The best part of the movie is when we’re watching it, it’s like watching the the series in TV once again. The one lose end of the movie is its story, which I felt could have been made better. But no complains from my end at all. I enjoyed watching the movie and would like to recommend anyone who likes to enjoy a good comedy movie with family.